Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the fields of medical engineering and information technology and in particular concerns control of imaging methods and systems, for example diagnostic magnetic resonance (MR) methods and MR systems, or other installations.
Description of the Prior Art
The diagnostic MR system 10 that is schematically shown in FIG. 1 has four layers: an MR measurement console 100, an MR measurement monitoring computer 200, an MR controller 300, and an MR data acquisition unit (MR scanner) 400.
The MR measurement console 100 has a communication interface 105, a processor 110 and memory 120. The memory 120 stores an operating system 130 and an application program 140. The MR measurement console 100 can, for example, be executed as a desktop computer 101 or notebook computer. The MR measurement console 100 serves for interaction of a user with the MR system 10, for example to plan an examination of a patient by means of the MR system 10 and to receive a parameterized measurement task. The MR measurement console 100 does not need to satisfy any real-time requirements, and the operating system does not need to be a real-time operating system (and is a version of Windows® from the company Microsoft, for example).
The MR measurement monitoring computer 200 has two communication interfaces 2051, 2052, a processor 210 and memory 220. The memory stores a real-time operating system 235, an application program 240 and a sequence 250. The MR measurement monitoring computer 200 can be executed as a powerful workstation 202, for example. With its communication interface 2051, the MR measurement monitoring computer 200 is connected via a connection 610 with the communication interface 105 of the MR measurement console 100 and serves for processing and execution of the measurement task that is transferred from the measurement console 100 to the MR measurement monitoring computer 200 via the connection 610. For this, the MR measurement monitoring computer 20 loads the sequence 250 in the form of a freely programmable binary program and executes it in order to promptly generate instructions for the MR system 400 with an actual execution point in time, which instructions are transferred to the MR controller 300. The MR measurement monitoring computer 200 must therefore satisfy real-time requirements on the order of one millisecond (ms) or shorter (soft real-time response), and the operating system must thus be a real-time operating system 235. The MR measurement monitoring computer 200 can be executed as a computer, for example a measurement and control computer (measurement and reconstruction computer) or a measurement and control system (measurement and reconstruction system).
The MR controller 300 has a communication interface 305 and n components 3601-360n with communication interfaces 3651-365n. The components 3601-360n translate the instructions and serve for general communication tasks, to control gradients of a gradient arrangement (gradient array), to control a transmitter unit (TX unit) and to process radio-frequency signals in the transmission unit or to control a receiver unit (RX unit) and to digitize radio-frequency (RF) reception signals in the receiver unit. For example, the n components 3601-360n can include digital signal processors (DSPs) or (application) field programmable (logic) gate arrays (FPGAs). With its communication interface 305, the MR controller 300 is connected via a connection 620 with the communication interface 2052 of the MR measurement monitoring computer 200 and serves to translate the instructions that are transferred from the MR measurement monitoring computer 200 and need to be executed exactly at a desired or, respectively, required point in time. The MR controller 300 therefore must satisfy real-time requirements on the order of one nanosecond (ns) or shorter (hard real-time). The MR controller 300 can be executed as a distributed controller, wherein given a distributed control the communication interface 305 can comprise multiple physical interfaces, for example if sub-components are spatially separated.
The MR installation/the MR scanner 400 has n devices 4601-460n (for example the gradient array with gradient amplifier and the gradient coils, the transmitter unit with radio-frequency amplifier and radio-frequency coil, and the receiver unit) with n communication interfaces 4651-465n that are connected via connections 6301-630n with the communication interfaces 3651-365n of the n components 3601-360n, and is controlled by the MR controller 300.
In operation of the MR system 10, the measurement workflow is controlled during the examination via the sequence that exactly establishes the points in time of gradient activity, radio-frequency pulses and measurements. Events (for example in the form of physiological signals) can thereby be reacted to dynamically, and the measurement workflow can be adapted accordingly.
In the simplest case, the sequence can be described in the form of a table (for example a static table) created once, this table simply being executed in the operation of the MR system 10.
Alternatively, in an improved version, the sequence can be realized in the form of an executable program that is freely programmed in advance by the manufacturer of the MR system 10, or by interested researchers in a computer language (for example a high-level computer language such as C or C++), and is executed by the measurement monitoring computer 200 in the operation of the MR system 10.
In such known systems, it is thus necessary to execute the sequence in the form of an executable program in a freely programmable measurement monitoring computer 200 with real-time requirements (since the instructions for the MR installation 400 must be generated promptly).
In the MR system 10 according to the prior art, the real-time requirements of the measurement monitoring computer 200 are disadvantageous.